


To the Moon and Back

by A_Shark_Named_Max



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2019-11-05 16:59:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 15,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17922770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Shark_Named_Max/pseuds/A_Shark_Named_Max
Summary: Short stories about Janey and Athena, the couple who have stolen my heart and consumed my entire thought process through out the day.





	1. Observations in the Field

It's little bit after they're married that Athena starts to notice that maybe people are a bit too invested in her and Janey's relationship.

It starts with Tina, but she was always a little pushy, a little inappropriate (considering she asked point blank if Athena hooked up with Janey).

Gaige is as subtle as a train wreck, she mostly just asks what was their first meeting like, dating and who proposed to who. Athena tries her best to answer her questions, but she settles for just telling her to echo Janey since her wife is always a lot better at articulating her words.

The most recent was it for Athena, while visiting Sanctuary she heard her and Janey's name on the radio and caught the tail end of the message which was "to my favorite lesbians from Axton". Which okay, he could've just used 'couple' but whatever.

Once Athena is home, she is greeted by Janey sitting pensively in their living room, staring at a large box sitting on their coffee table.

Athena sits down next to her and asks, "Uh what is-what is that?"

Janey turns her head slightly, keeping her eyes on the mysterious box. "I don't know, but it's from Moxxi and the only thing the note she left was just a picture of her winking saying 'enjoy', I've been too afraid to open it."

They sit in silence for a moment before Athena springs up, "I'm getting this out of the house."


	2. Children are People, too

_"There was a redhead on Promethea, he couldn't have been more than 12, we bombed his village to make way for an armory."_

* * *

It was something that Janey made a mental note of in the back of her mind.

Though it was probably too early to make that claim considering that Elpis wasn't booming with kids, hard to raise a family on a moon when there was sparsely any cities and it was more than likely you'd die from Kraggons or Scavs before you got to that point.

Either way, it surprised Janey how much Athena seemed to be at ease talking to Pickle. Usually, any time the short woman had any sort of conversation towards people in Concordia, she had little patience and was curt, Athena wasn't one for small talk. Well, unless it was her.

But whenever Pickle made his way to visit the Emporium or they would go and see him at his place in Outlands Canyon, it would amaze her how much Athena seem to be gentle or as gentle as she could be towards anyone.

It really solidified when locking up the Emporium one night, they were taking Pickle out to eat with them, Janey saw out of the corner of her eye as they both laughed and she watched Athena reach out and ruffle his hair.

She nearly crushed her hand closing the door.

 

* * *

 

Living on Pandora, in Hollow Point, still not prime environment for raising kids but somehow among the bandits and psychos roaming around, life finds a way. After the fiasco of the Traveler and getting married, things have been tentative but different in a really good way; after frying Rudiger's face off and losing her job as a food stand attendant, Athena somehow found herself as an helper for Hammerlock whenever he went out to study animals or needed her to get samples. It still amazed them both how different he was compared to Aurelia, were they really brother and sister?

While locking up Scooter's, well her garage now, she could hear from behind the building the sounds of kids laughing and yelling, Janey pocketed her keys and moved towards the door leading out the back, the sight that greeted her made her smile. As she leaned against the door, she watched Athena fiddle with a worn out ball, a handful of kids from around Hollow Point surrounding her; the empty lot behind the garage always served as a point for the few kids to play in, also probably having a force of nature like Athena so near made them feel safer.

"Hold up, I can throw it hard enough to break it."

Janey could hear the cries of disbelief and amazement as she watched her wife wind up and throw the ball so hard, reminiscent of how she did the same for her shield. The toy was a blur as it hit the already crumbling brick wall across from them with enough force that it stayed embedded for a few seconds before pieces of brick fell off with the ball and now a pretty sizable hole was left.

The kids with Athena let out loud cheers until a loud bang from a door of the building with the bust wall swings open and someone yelling about the noise killed the good mood. Janey could hear Athena whisper loudly to the kids surrounding her to run and she watches as they take off, running past her and away from any danger, who upon seeing Athena immediately freezes and slowly steps back inside.

Janey laughs and watches as the other woman walks over and pick up the toy, dusting it off before turning around and smiling once she saw her.

"All done?", Athena asks as she walks over, tossing the ball towards Janey, who just barely catches it.

"Yeah, ready to head home?" Athena nods and they make their way towards their home, Athena's hand warm against her waist as they walked quietly together.

Janey sets the toy on their makeshift coffee table, flopping lazily on their worn-out couch, "What do you wanna do with that anyway?" Athena clips off her armor before lifting Janey's legs and setting them on her lap, "Just hold it until tomorrow, they know I go to the garage after work so they'll be waiting."

A comfortable silence passes when Janey speaks up again, "You know, it still amazes me how good you are with kids." Judging from Athena's stunned expression, she wasn't expecting that comment.

"I don't.. really?"

"Well, unless they're just hanging around you for your pretty face, but who could blame them if they were?" Janey punctuated her statement by grabbing Athena's hand, lacing their fingers together.

"Well kids are just people technically." Janey laughed but agreed with her.

They let themselves sink into a comfortable silence.

 

* * *

 

Athena had been sent by Hammerlock to clear out an abandoned village that some Bullymongs had "ever so rudely", his words not hers, pushed out some residents and asked to bring back some skin samples. She really didn't understand what he did with any of that but he paid too well for her to complain honestly.

Once she got there she noticed some bandits had made home near the outskirts of the village, she made quick work of them and took out the Bullymongs as well, she bagged whatever sje could for Hammerlock and was about to head back to Sanctuary for her reward when she heard a noise from a run downed shack.

What she found was a scared child, a young girl with dirty clothes and a large bruise on her face; Athena said aside her gun and kneeled down before outstretching her hand, "They're all dead, there's no one here but the both of us."

She wasn't sure how much time passed as the child hesitated to come near her, Athena watched as she timidly took her hand and look up at her with frightened eyes.

They walked slowly through the quiet village littered with Bullymong and bandit corpses back to tje runner.

Athena felt the fast-travel effects fade as she appeared in Pierce Station and headed towards Zed's, Sanctuary was the safest place or safest at least for her to leave the child here.

First impression of Zed with him blood covered and holding a saw wasn't the best, but she growled at him and told the weirdo who always hung around to buzz off.

Athena asked him to check her over and see if she was okay, she would tell Lilith she found her and as she turned to leave the child grabbed her arm, their eyes gave way to how frightened they were.

"You're safe here, I promise."

"Can't I come with you?" Her fingers clung harder onto her sleeve, Athena furrowed her brows, unsure what to do.

"I don't live here, but I will be back tomorrow."

"You promise?"

"Uh well I work here so, I suppose…"

That was enough to placate them, flimsy as it was, after Athena reported the child to Lilith and got her payment from Hammerlock, she made her way to Hollow Point, eager to see Janey.

She found her wife in the garage office doing paperwork, the day's exhausting events finally catching up with her, Athena kissed her on the cheek and sat on her lap, wrapping her arms tightly around her.

Janey chuckled, "Hard day?"

"I'll tell you when we get home."

 

* * *

 

 

"What does wife look like?"

A few weeks after taking the child, whose name was Nia, to Sanctuary and being okayed by Zed, as good as that can be considering, Athena found whenever she visited that she would always be sought out and her usual short visits were prolonged. It was strange, she assumed that after awhile she would be forgotten considering the amount of colorful characters in the city but no, Nia would always ask for her and stick close to her whenever she was here.

And somehow, Athena found herself sharing things and talking and it was very weird. Maybe she was getting soft she thought as she warily reached into her vest pocket and pulled out the photo she kept of Janey and her from their wedding, "She's pretty."

Athena pulled the photo back, gazing at Janey's smiling face, "Yeah, I know."

"C-can I..meet her?"

Athena turned her gaze to the child, who was burying herself against the stuff toy she was holding, a gift from Maya.

"Yeah, okay."

"Really?!"

She leaned away as she yelled, "Yes but you're gonna come back here."

"Oh.. okay, that's fine." Nia pouted, clearly wanting to stay with her.

As the fast-travel effects wore off and Hollow Point came into view, Athena led her towards the Catch-a-Ride garage. Janey was working on a special runner, a commission she had told her about, as she turned to grab at a tool she needed she paused once she them and smiled

"Oh hey there Hon, is this who I think it is?"

"Um yeah, this is Nia."

The child tentatively peaked from behind Athena, gazing at Janey in curiosity before saying hi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The opening line is from cut dialogue that Athena says to Tiny Tina, I wish they kept it in. A lot of the cut dialogue for the PreSequel is so good.


	3. Fading Crimson

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is completely self-indulgent, don't look at me okay.

"I'm leaving Athena."

"When?"

"In two weeks, they'll be sending a bunch of troops out to another planet and they'll be busy enough that I can slip away."

Squeezed behind a concrete bunker in the dead of night, they were suppose to be on watch but honestly there was nothing that could really sneak up on them, otherwise they'd be bad assassins.

Athena watched as Artemis rolled her neck and adjusted her helmet, she didn't like taking it off on hours unlike herself, the damn thing was just so suffocating to wear all the time.

"She's on Eden-5, lucky for me; the only hard part will be switching transit ships but I can manage that. What about you, have you found her yet?" Athena shifted against the concrete wall.

"No, the files I've swiped seem to indicate she was already gone when they picked me up years ago."

Artemis laid a hand on Athena's shoulder, "You'll find her. Atlas is stupidly methodical about how they keep their documents, they have what you're looking for."

"I hope so."

The weeks went by and Artemis disappeared, Athena had heard chatter about it from the other Lance operatives but considering that assassins had everything in the form of human affection and companionship ripped out of them, you couldn't really question any of them since well friendship or loyalty towards each other would be a fault in their Atlas training.

While Athena was happy for her, it did mean she was alone now. She may not have been the warmest or most talkative person around though the same could be said for herself, but she at least enjoyed Artemis's company.

Things were looking up though, new information she found about Jess possibly being on Pandora, so all she needed to do was figure out how to convince the higher ups that they needed Lance Assassins on ground there. She could probably bullshit something.

As the moon shined high above Promethea, Athena could only hope she would be free soon.

A little over a year later on Pandora, her sister lays dead at her feet and Athena works with the Vault Hunters on taking down Atlas.

Elpis; despite the Shugguraths, Kraggons, bloodthirsty Scavs and necessity of oxygen to go literally anywhere; it was probably one of the nicest places Athena has lived.

Athena gazed out from the opening of the Emporium's garage, the odd haze of colors swirling on the horizon with Pandora hanging above, the bright Eridium scar giving an eerie glow.

It's strange to think how much her life has changed in such a short amount of time, well three years is probably not that short. Shorter compared to what she was doing before with the Lance, so many years that she can remember so vividly that they almost blended together given how monotonous they were.

Athena wasn't even sure how old she could be, for the Lance assassins they made sure to make them unlearn any unnecessary things like love, parental love and care for oneself, keeping track of your age just wasn't important. She could try and make an estimate about the possible age she could be, the amount of time it took to search for Jess was a good start, twenty years she remembers clearly.

So over the age of 20 at least.

But that was just guessing, and that kind of uncertainty unnerved her. Plus, it wasn't that important.

Athena turned her gaze behind her and up at Janey's office window, she could see the junker's shadow as she paced back and forth; probably still finishing up that business call.

That was another thing that was different.

Three years ago when she wondering Pandora alone and angry, the blood of Jess's death still fresh on her mind. With the Crimson Lance gone, she didn't have anywhere to go but forward and survive. Accepting the job from Jack was just to sustain her for awhile, get some action and easy money and move on, but things never seem to work out the way she wanted them too.

It just spiraled.

But with all the bad that came out of the Elpis mission, the few good was probably Janey.

It was strange how quickly she came to care for her, even when they had just met Athena had to admit to herself she found the blonde attractive though she tried to put it out of her mind, the mission needed her full attention, she couldn't get distracted. But Athena found that every time they talked or ran into each other, Janey Springs would remain in her thoughts.

It was all so new and so very frightening.

Besides that, Athena found herself grappling with some sense of morality which was not unfamiliar but definitely not something that ever used to bother her on any of her previous missions. Then Jack killed the scientists she saved and Athena had to fight her instinct to just take Xiphos and stab it through her employer.

Instead, Athena grit her teeth and continue on, but that didn't stop the turmoil eating at her. It would've continued to bother her, if Janey hadn't bothered to call her and for once in her miserable life, Athena found herself reaching out to someone.

And somehow, after Jack and the Vault and the Sentinel; Athena found herself staying on Elpis with Janey, and for once she felt good.

"Hey! Sorry that took so long, an old friend called in a few favors and I was busy arranging some deliveries for them." Janey, done with work, walks towards where she was leaning up against the railing, shop keys twirling around her fingers.

Athena gives her a small smile in response and let Janey press a kiss to her cheek in greeting.

God, she is never gonna get used to that, she kinda hopes she doesn't.

She lets Janey lead her out the Emporium, her hand warm against Athena's waist, as they headed back to Janey's tiny Concordia apartment down in the sublevels.

"So who was this friend of yours?" Athena asks, curiosity finally winning out as she waits for Janey to unlock the door.

As they move in, Janey answers as she walks into the kitchen, eager to start dinner, "My buddy Fang. Her and her sister moved down to Pandora a little after The Crackening."

"Their entire village was swallowed up, no one survived except the two of them. They figured they would start fresh somewhere new, sometimes she'll call up and I send them a few things." Janey finishes her story right as the food finishes cooking, she places their plates on the table and they both sit down to eat.

Athena silent mulls over what she was told as she eats before she speaks up, "Fang?"

Janey laughs, "Yeah, it ain't her real name but she wanted to change it since she was gonna do black market stuff and she wanted something that really popped." She gulps down her water, "But I'm pretty sure she just wanted an excuse to have a cooler-sounding name, she was always a bit dramatic."

Moments of silence filled with Athena shoveling food with Janey's slower pace when Athena spoke up again, "How did you two meet?"

Janey leans back in her seat, arms crossed in thought, "Can't exactly remember, we were both pretty drunk but I do remember that we punched each other in the face, broke my nose too."

"What?"

Having multiple locations for Catch-A-Ride was effective for keeping the money flowing, but it didn't make it any less exhausting to constantly keep maintaining them. Even with Ellie's help (and sometimes Moxxi, which was still weird on Athena's account) it was still time consuming and overwhelming, well if you were anyone other than Janey Springs.

On this rare occasion though and thanks to Scooter, somehow they found themselves in a more tropical setting close to Wam Bam island, the garage was set inside some seaside village called Oerba. From what Athena gathered and could see, it was pretty fortified with armed guards and turrets, it was almost on par with Sanctuary except it wasn't a flying city which was a plus because that was highly unnerving.

How could anyone feel safe like that she'll never understand.

Janey told her she only had paperwork to sort through and stock to file through and she would let her know when she was done, so Athena found herself wandering around and taking in what the village had to offer. So far from what she could gather, Oerba was built on the remains of an old bandit holdout, it was mostly a made up of merchants which would make sense since according to Janey, it was a popular place to do business on the black market.

As she was gazing in vague interest in all the oddly colorful trinkets, maybe something she could take for Janey or Pickle, she heard a familiar voice call out to her.

"Athena?"

She looked over to see someone she never thought she would ever meet again, hardly any different except for slightly older, Athena knew right away who it was.

"Holy shit, Artemis?" They both of them quickly walked over to one another and grasp their hands together for a brief moment before Athena spoke up again, "What are you doing here?"

The other woman just snorted, "After I found Serah, Eden-5 wasn't that nice about granting me an easy life to live. I got sent a job opportunity down on Pandora, it sounded shady as hell but I was desperate at this point, worked out though." Artemis sighed, "Serah wasn't that thrilled about the move, but Oerba so far is decent enough, seaside view is rather nice."

"So, what do you do here?" Athena asked, following Artemis as they moved towards the center of the village. A large statue of a humanoid creature with a mane? It definitely isn't something Athena has ever seen before.

"Black market stuff, sometimes body guarding. Didn't want to get burnt out constantly doing only one thing. Oh and um-" Artemis rubbed her neck-"I got by Lightning now, just.. you know how I never cared for the names Atlas gave us.

"You didn't choose Lightning because you like shock weapons right?" Athena laughed.

"No! Shut up." Lightning playfully shoved Athena.

The ex-assassins took time catching up and relaying what had happened to the both of them over the years, Athena retelling or at least the shortened version of the Elpis mission and the Vault of the Traveler. Lightning made sure to tell her of the trouble of the bandit clans attacks in the early days of Oerba and if it wasn't for the Vault Hunters taking down Jack, they would've set their sights on Oerba. "Prime real estate" Lightning clarified.

"I can't believe you're married," Lightning laughed, lightly punching Athena's shoulder. "if anything I expected you to become something like a legendary mercenary."

Athena gazed down at the ring on her hand, "It probably would've happened, but, I can't imagine my life without Janey so I'm glad that things ended up this way." She paused before continuing. "I mean, not that I like the bad things that happened um…"

Lightning laughed, "No, I get what you mean. I also.. found someone."

Athena watched as her face flushed red and she shuffled uncomfortably in her spot, "Weird how they worked out for us, huh?"

"Yeah."

"OI LIGHTNING!"

Both women turned towards the voice yelling and Athena could see Janey walking with another woman, her hair was unruly and long, what she could see immediately was the large tattoo on her left arm.

The ex-assassins met them halfway and Athena was surprised when the mystery woman kissed Lightning in greeting, though she didn't get much time to dwell on it when Janey did the same for her. Janey slapped her hand on the other woman's shoulder, "This is my buddy Fang, I told you about how she runs a black market biz, but hell, I didn't think I would run into you here?"

Fang, now that Athena knows, threw her head back as she laughed, "Well, yeah it's more or less an open secret but I gotta have some secrecy y'know." As all four women moved from the center of the village where Athena and Lightning had been talking, Fang spoke up again, "Also, technically we're in international waters so all of this is legal anyway."


	4. Echoed Resolve (Part 1)

It had startled Athena as she followed the hologram of what was Claptrap's consciousness down to the trash heap, it was a projection of Janey on a pedestal, as for why it was here could be anyone's guess.

Seeing it out of the corner of her eye after she had dropped down, Athena was brought out of her hard focus, knowing that Janey couldn't be anywhere here since she was currently at their home in Hollow Point, bedridden.

Hearing Claptrap call out to follow him brought her out of her thoughts of her girlfriend, she couldn't get distracted, at least right now. She needed to hurry and get back to Hollow Point and make sure Janey was okay, all these setbacks so far have prolonged a simple retrieval mission and Athena didn't want to be away longer than a day.

Janey needed her.

Even though she was in a hurry, she couldn't help herself from playing the prerecorded voice messages of Janey whenever she stopped in the Nexus for the grinder or ammo. They may have just been nonsensical simulations of what Claptrap assumes Janey thinks but they still gave Athena some small comfort being able to hear her voice.


	5. Echoed Resolve (Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I'm doing this for Springs. We need the money."

"I lied."

Janey sat up in their bed, she had just laid down to sleep when after a couple of minutes of turning their lights off, Athena said this in the darkness.

So now she was staring at her fiance's guilty expression as she laid in bed.

"Lied about what?" Janey asked softly, 'more secrets' was what was slowly echoing at the back of her head, but no, Athena was getting better at talking and being honest about her feelings.

That progress would be lost if she started just assuming things suddenly.

Athena sat up, her eyes downcast, "Fiona said you told her my echo was still on before Brick and Mordecai arrived. I lied that I was still doing all those jobs because Vault Hunting and adventuring, that was only a half-truth." Athena let out a sigh. "I'm sorry."

Janey leaned against their bed headboard and took Athena's hand, clasping it in-between both of hers'. "Athena, its okay," she squeezed her hand lightly, "but if that was only half of it, what was the rest?"

"Do you remember after we came down to Pandora, you had gotten so sick in the first few months and I was so scared because I had no idea what to do and all our money was going into making sure you were okay and the rent. I was so desperate to help you and," Athena scoffed and gripped Janey's hand," and that's when I got that echo from Jack about the H-Source and I jumped at it."

Athena leaned against Janey, grasping her other hand around both of Janeys', "After you got better and got the job with Scooter, I did do what we promised but I just couldn't stop thinking about you being sick or getting hurt and me not being able to do anything about it. I thought that if I made enough money quickly, we wouldn't have to worry about it. But I still broke a promise and lied to you. I'm sorry."

Athena was breathing hard after admitting all of that, talking so much and honestly really exhausted her, while she was willing to do all of that for Janey; it still mentally exhausted her.

It took a few moments for Janey to truly absorb everything Athena had told her, she vividly remembers how she felt finding out about the lies and the combined knowledge of her girlfriend's capture and how it was just a maelstrom of complicated emotions.

But after getting Athena out of Sanctuary and a couple of months of tough but needed talks, they came out of it better and engaged. Honestly, from all of what they been through, Janey was glad that they were able to break through to this point and she couldn't have been happier.

She took a deep breath, "Thank you for telling me, I'm sorry too, for making you feel like you needed to hide things from me."

Athena's reaction was quick as she lifted her head up, staring into Janey's eyes. "No! I'm sorry that I wasn't honest with you," she broke her gaze, hesitating on her words, "I was just afraid because this is still all so new to me and I'm so scared I'll screw this up, I almost did…"

Janey let go of Athena's hands, moving them to cradle her face, "Athena, I know that everything you did and do is for us and I'm grateful for that, I know things we rough for a bit but we're here now and things are good."

She finished her statement by kissing Athena's forehead and wrapping her arms around her, she could feel her fiance's arms slowly do the same and squeeze her.

When they had finally settled down for bed, Janey couldn't help but think about how almost four years ago; she had been alone on Elpis still mourning the loss of her previous girlfriend. Practically throwing herself into work and at any women who would so much say hello to her, then out of nowhere, here was this woman dropping straight out of the sky and somehow years later through all their hardships, here they were.

Laying in bed with Athena tucked under her arm, she wasn't sure how she got so lucky.


	6. Shield and Pride

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally wrote this for Pride Month!

"No."

"Wha-Come on, Athena! Please!?" Rhys cried out, slamming his hands against the counter. Whatever quiet morning Athena had hoped for was ruined when, well Sasha and Fiona's friend more than her own, walked into her sister's bookstore to ask her a favor. Which was bold, considering she really didn't like him at all, he was a weirdo.

Athena sighed. "Look, I don't like crowds or loud places. So, no." She moved away from the counter, grabbing a couple of boxes of books that needed to be shelved.

Rhys whimpered before straightening up and fiddling with his tie, following after Athena. "Alright, I guess I have to unleash my secret weapon." He took a moment to breathe deeply before dropping to the floor and wrapping his arms tightly around Athena's legs. "Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease-"

Athena dropped the boxes of books in her arms and tried to shove him off of her, but he wouldn't budge. "Rhys, I said no!"

"-pleaspleasepleasepleaseplease-"

"NO!"

"God dammit."

Somehow days later, Athena found herself waiting alongside the Atlas Co. brand Pride float for the signal that would let their float start to move into the parade lineup. Rhys had annoyed her into submission and now she had sacrificed her free time to having to walk down so many blocks downtown.

She hated this, at least it was cool weather.

Crowds and loud places were not things she could stand at all, especially after retiring from the armed forces, she just didn't find any satisfaction in going out to noisy areas unless it was necessary reasons like the grocery store or anything medical.

What was wrong with staying home?

"Alright, looks like we're almost ready to go. Where is Sasha, she's been gone for way too long?" Rhys jumped down from their float, wearing an incredibly gaudy rainbow styled suit. Why he thought it looked good was anyone's guess.

Athena stopped texting her sister complaints, putting her phone in her backpocket. "I'll look for her."

"Thanks Athena, she said she would be further down the line." Rhys moved over towards his friend, Vaughn something, who was the float driver.

She made her way around where most of the participants were waiting for their own turn, she remembered seeing Sasha walk down this way, there wasn't much further other than staff and police helping cord off streets. So far her forced participation hadn't been so bad, getting up early to help out wasn't a big deal since she's been used to early morning workshifts helping Jess with the store. And being on the parade route meant she didn't have to go through thousands of people which really put her mind at ease at least for now until they started walking and luckily no one has really bothered her except for the few staff members she had to talk to since Rhys was so busy doing whatever the hell he was doing.

All Athena needed to do was last two hours of walking beside a float with loud yelling people and hopefully not punch anyone, she didn't want that lecture again, and then she can go home.

She passed by many exuberant displays of floats to groups of people getting ready for their own turn to move into the public eye. After a couple of minutes of walking around the staff area, Athena finally spotted Sasha near a group of motorcycles parked off to the side with several women in leather vests hanging around.

As she grew closer, Athena could see Sasha was talking to a blonde woman, she was wearing the same leather vests the other bikers had on. Athena hadn't realized she had stopped walking until the blonde woman looked over at her standing a few feet away and nudged Sasha.

"Oh Athena! What's up, Rhys need something?"

Remembering she needed to speak, Athena tried to shake her brief moment of dumbstruck out of her mind. "Uh Yeah, he said we'll be up next soon and to come get you." She was trying very hard not notice the blonde woman very obviously dragging her eyes up and down her body.

"Oh crap, didn't realize I was taking so long. I got so caught up trying to catch up with Janey." Sasha waved a hand towards the blonde woman who finally stood up from leaning against her bike. "This is my friend, Janey Springs, she runs the garage near where Fiona and me live."

The woman now known as Janey, stuck out her hand for Athena to shake and spoke in a low drawl of an accent, "Nice to meetcha."

Okay Athena, just because this woman was unusually attractive doesn't mean you should lose any or all of your composure.

Her eyes were really pretty though.

Really hoping she wasn't awkwardly shaking this woman's hand for any extended period of time that was inappropriate, Athena grunted out a hello.

Janey leaned back against, what she assumed was, her bike. "So what do you do, Athena?"

Okay Athena, let's not think too hard or deeply about how much you like how this woman says your name, you need to speak words now. "Counter-bookstore." No, that wasn't quite right. "I mean, I work the counter at my sister's bookstore."

Janey hummed, and Athena figured she needed to leave now or risk further embarrassing herself.

"Okay Sasha we should go, I really don't want Rhys to start text spamming my phone."

"Right, see ya later, Janey."

"Bye Sasha." Janey paused and made sure Athena was watching. "Bye, Athena, it was nice to meet someone as pretty as you."

Anything cognitive in Athena's mind disappeared as soon as those words entered her brain, she needed to leave now.

"Uh.." No words, use words! "Thank you, bye."

She tried to ignore to feeling of being watched and the obvious snickering from Sasha as they walked back. What the hell was it about that woman that made her lose any form of sense?

Yeah she was attractive, tall, had nice dark eyes-okay this wasn't helping.

All Athena needed to focus on was getting through this and then go home and eat dinner with her sister and try not to feel oddly disappoint over never seeing Janey Springs again.

It was a couple hours when they had finished, Athena was beyond exhausted.

Walking five miles was nothing, but simply being surrounded by such a large crowd tired her out more than the walk ever could.

She was just glad to be going home.

Though she should have figured that Sasha would blab to Fiona, who sent so many text messages she was seriously considering blocking her number and she should have expected they both would blab to her sister.

She should have realized something was up once she entered their shared apartment and saw that Jess cooked her favorite that something was up. Athena spend most of dinner with her face on the table as Jess teased endlessly.

A couple of days had passed, the teasing had mostly died down except from her sister but there no amount of threatening to punching holes in walls would do anything to phase her. Plus, she would be the one paying for the damages.

It was a slow Sunday morning, the only ones in the bookstore were Tina and Pickle who were busy thumbing through the old comics donated to the store. Jess was in the back, since the store was relatively empty, she figured to get a jump on some finances.

Athena sipped her latte when the front door opened and the last person she ever expected walked in. It was Janey Springs, the women that made her lose any sort of composure she had in three words. She was here, in her sister's bookstore, walking towards her and now all Athena could hope for was this was because she drank too much coffee and was in the middle of a caffeinated hallucination.

Janey leaned against the counter, smiling in a way that made Athena's heart beat faster, "Hi."

"Um.. hello."

If only Athena knew how to act like a normal person who had some sense of social skills instead of basic self-defense and how the duodecimal system worked.

Athena cleared her throat. "So how did you find this place?" She really hoped that didn't sound accusatory, but considering her amount of luck there was just no way this woman who made her feel way too many things would show up naturally at her sister's bookstore where she worked.

"Sasha told me."

Okay, looks like Athena will have to kill Sasha, at least Janey had to decency to look guilty over what she assumed was an awkward situation.

"OOOOOOOHH ATHENA did you finally get a girlfriend?" Tina yelled as she jumped up and down, nearly knocking over the magazine stand near her.

"Tina, she isn't my girlfriend."

"Oh so you're still hopelessly single?"

"Leave now." Athena growled out.

"Okay fiiiiiinne, but I wanna know if you hook up with this cutie. BYE JESS!" Pickle waved to Athena as they both left the store. Surely, this couldn't get any worse than it has?

The long uncomfortable silence that followed definitely didn't help.

Janey seem to sense the awkward atmosphere. "Athena, am I making you uncomfortable, because I can go if you want?"

"No!" She said it a little more forcibly than she meant to, but she needed to let Janey know her lack of social skills wasn't a sign of uninterest. "I'm just not used to this attention, mostly everyone stays away from me because of how intimidating I am." She cleared her throat. "Also I suplexed a guy once and everyone kind of remembers that."

Janey smiled, "So, you don't mind if I ask you out?"

"She definitely doesn't."

"Jess!" Athena turned around to see her sister peering out from the opened door behind the counter, Jess hummed before disappearing behind the door. Athena tried to ignore the whispered Go for it directed at her.

Athena tried not let her embarrassment show as Janey laughed, "Okay so if I asked you out for lunch, today, would you say yes?"

"I would, also let's go now please before anything else decides to humiliate me."

The front door slammed opened, the bell connected to the door was nearly knocked off as Fiona yelled for almost the whole street to hear, "ATHENA DID JANEY ASK YOU OUT YET?

"I hate you so much."


	7. Muck Warfare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A Splatoon AU because this is just how I roll I guess.

Janey flopped onto her bed, she had been on a pretty bad losing streak lately and it had been really bumming her out.

No matter what combination of gear and weapon she used, she always seem to get overwhelmed and her team was forced into a corner.

So much for getting back into A rank on top of that…

She rolled off her bed and made her way towards her kitchen, Janey had been so focused on battling that she had forgotten to eat lunch. As she heated up some leftovers, she figured a break from turfing would be best for her mood, maybe she could do some shifts at Grizzco instead.

At least when they get wiped out, Mr. Grizz still payed them somewhat.

* * *

In a dark alley, somewhere far off from Inkopolis Square, an Octoling was slumped against a wall as she wrapped up her injured arm.

The drain gate she had busted out from lay mangled next to her Octoshot, it had been hectic getting out of Octo Canyon, it wasn't designed for leaving as far as she was concerned.

Though how those Agents seem to go in and out, she'll never know, but that was also how they seem to beat them not just once but twice.

With her arm bandaged up, the Octoling grabbed her weapon and moved through the back alleys, trying to stay away from the bright lights she could see from the streets and the loud chatter of the crowds. She needed to get out of her armor and find a secure place to stash that and her weapon, find a dry place to at least sleep without getting into any trouble.

Plus money, the rations she had taken won't last long and she could only go so long missing meals. Turning a corner she was faced with a very large poster, almost forgotten with how worn and peeling at the corners, but she could still make out the words.

_'Ready to join something bigger than yourself? Grizzco is hiring!'_

* * *

The Salmonids have been so ruthless lately, Janey had never seen so many Stingers and Steel Eels in her life, but it was worth all that extra money. Her wallet was very happy.

Turfing may be a bust for now, but at least doing some good old fashion work can keep her going. Unless Mr. Grizz loaned her a charger, then she could just say goodbye to her bonus, there was just no using those things.

Today had been good, more completed jobs than crew wipes, her coworkers that had stuck around for a couple of hours throughout her shifts have been decent and nice enough. Though the one Inkling girl that Janey may or may not thought was cute and was maybe not so subtly flirting with her through out their shifts had to leave to have dinner with friends, that was disappointing.

As they waited for another coworker to fill in the empty spot, Janey checked over Inkopolis News feed. Looks like some new weapons were added at Ammo Knights, she would need to make sure to stop by and say hi to Sheldon and gush over the stats and mechanics of them. Massive losing streak or not, that wouldn't stop Janey from talking shop about new weapons.

Nothing else but the usually banter from Pearl and Marina (and the oh so obvious flirting, seriously they had to be dating right?), there wasn't anything new.

Mr. Grizz interrupted her browsing to tell them they had a new coworker that would be joining them soon and to be ready to head out to Marooner's Bay.

Their Grizzco supervisor handed out their loaned weapons and specials, it was a few more minutes before someone walked up towards their boat at the docks and Janey swore it was probably the cutest girl she had ever seen.

Oh no, and she had to act normal because they would be working together. Oh no.

As their supervisor handed over the new girl's equipment and the boat started moving, Janey figured she could at least introduce herself. Just try and be friendly, maybe not immediately ask her out and possibly weird her out before a said friendship could be established.

Janey took a deep breath before making her way towards the cute girl, "Ah heya! Haven't seen you around before, are you new to Inkopolis?" Okay this was good, not too creepy, it was pretty obvious when a new comer came to the Square.

Cute girl glanced up at her and Janey nearly died, her eyes were so pretty and she was very cute and much shorter than her, oh no.

She just nodded.

Okay that meant either two things, she was immediately weirded out by her and everything was ruined or she was shy. Janey hoped it was the latter.

"Have you been working at Grizzco for very long then?"

Cute girl shook her head, "I started a couple a weeks ago."

And she was already at Profreshional?!

"Wow, it hasn't even been that long and you're already at such a high rank, you must be crazy good at Turf War then." Janey saw her stiffen a little at her last sentence, but relax quickly before answering her.

"I haven't been able to do that yet, mostly focusing on getting money."

"Yeah, I get what you mean. Well, if you ever need some help when you start Turfing, let me know!" Janey made sure not to mention her extreme losing streak.

As they near their destination and their supervisor reminded them of the usual dangers in a very monotone voice before having them superjump over. Inking up the turf before the shift started, Janey realized she never got cute girl's name.

"Oh I'm Janey by the way, what about you?"

Cute girl finished spraying turf with the Mini Splattling gun before responding, "Athena."

* * *

Seriously, fuck flyfish.

Five completed runs, it would make sense for their luck to run out and now they had numerous boss Salmonids overtaking them and only one person was left.

Janey had been able to take down two of the three flyfish, but wasn't able to watch out for the Scrapper sneaking up behind her. With the third wave almost over and down one on quota, looks like this was a failure.

Well it would've been a failure if a stingray didn't just sweep through and revived all of them at once, whoever was closest to the basket must have put in a golden egg at the last second. As the Salmonids left to return to the ocean, Janey looked up to see Athena with the E-Liter, jump down from the top of the ship overlooking the beach area of Marooner's Bay.

Athena had been a beast throughout their shifts, no matter what weapon or special she had been given, she seem to just obliterate the Salmonids. Janey had never seen anyone be just so fluid with their weapon and just somehow be so calm during waves of enemies.

It was pretty amazing from the brief moments she could witness it.

How Athena said she never did Turf War before seem almost laughable because she could probably go pro.

Superjumping back to the boat, they headed back towards HQ, and her other two coworkers practically mobbed Athena who seem to grow more uncomfortable with the attention. Some Inklings just couldn't hold their excitement towards anyone they considered fresh.

"Come on guys, let the girl breathe."

The other two squidkids stopped babbling to realize that Athena was slowly shrinking on herself, pulling her hat down to hide her face. They mumbled out an apology and left with a compliment on her style and sort of just awkwardly walked towards the other side of the boat like kicked squids.

"You alright, sorry to butt in like that, you just looked like you need an out." Athena looked up at her, and mumbled out a thanks.

Figuring she shouldn't push her luck, Janey decided crowding her even more would be bad, "Well alright, I'll leave ya alone now. Just shout if you need me."

She hoped her walking away didn't seem as pathetic as she figured it was, though before she could make two steps away, Athena called her out.

"Actually hey, you said you'd help me with Turf War right?"

"Ah yeah! But I gotta be honest, I've been on a crazy losing streak so just fair warning if I jinx ya."

Athena just shrugged, "I don't think that'll be a problem."

* * *

30 fucking wins in a row, Janey was absolutely sure she wasn't even alive anymore because no way this was even possible. While their teammates and well herself fluctuated from struggling to doing okay, Athena just seem to carry them all to victory, no matter what they were up against.

How anyone confidently charged towards a Dynamo Roller with just a N-Zap was beyond her.

Athena was otherworldly, her skill was obviously above anything that has been seen before since their teammates and even opponents would come over to just talk to her. She gave short vague answers, uncomfortable with the attention and would look over towards Janey, pleading with her blue eyes to save her.

They had to temper some of their matches together with breaks to keep overzealous Inklings from overwhelming Athena. Though with how much they were Turfing, word would probably get around about how good she was and sooner she wouldn't be able to escape it. EVen with Janey's help, she'll probably end up getting scouted at this point.

She really didn't get how she never done Turf War before, maybe she was just a natural?

But with how well she took out the Salmonids, it was almost like she had experience fighting.

Weird.

Within the days of knowing Athena, Janey also noticed a weird change lately, mostly how there seem to be a real influx of newcomers to the Square with these weird new hairstyles. Fads came and went in Inkling society but considering she hadn't really heard or seen anyone talk about it was strange, everyone talked about new fads, fashion, music etc. But this new hairstyle craze just came out of nowhere, also there was definitely something off about some of these Inklings but maybe it was just her.

Time past by so quickly, Janey had been spending so much time at the Square since that was probably the place Athena stuck to the most, she tried to coax her out to other places like Arowana Mall or Humpback Pump Track. Athena didn't seem all that interested when she suggested she check them out on her own, but she didn't seem to mind much when she went with her, maybe she just didn't like going out by herself.

She also didn't really spend money a whole lot, when she found a good set of gear and weapons, she stuck to then unlike everyone else who just bought out the entire store. Janey had to admit she was guilty of this too.

The more time she spent with Athena, the more she realized that whatever small crush she had on her had grown exponentially. She was very cute but that was obvious from the start, but with how she handled herself and the dumb puns she would say with such confidence, it nearly killed her.

Despite hanging out with her so much, Janey would have to stop and realize that Athena hardly talked about herself, sure she said some things but she never really got anything clearcut. She knew not to push, but it still bugged her that it was such a mystery, though that curiosity turned to worry because what if she was a run away?

Inklings ditching school and other obligations for Turf War wasn't out of the norm, that didn't make it okay so Janey hoped it wasn't too serious. And prying it out of Athena would be bad, she would clam up and probably never speak to her again and she would lose a friend and then worry about if she was taking care of herself.

So Janey tried to help and be a friend to Athena, it was nice having her around.

Then the new splatfest was announced: Inklings vs Octolings and suddenly it clicked for Janey.

Those weird Inklings with the odd hairstyles, how they seem to come out of nowhere, Athena's skittishness when talking about herself and where she came from.

The Octarians.

The Great Turf War was 100 years ago, no one really cared about that though except for the adults. She could see the fear that spread among the now obvious Octolings and Athena, but Janey knew, Inklings really didn't care, she could hear and see how they pretty much all shrugged it off with "oh cool Octarians still exist".

Inklings were notorious for going with the flow, sure they'll welcome a used to believed extinct species who was their mortal enemy. Who cares since that war was like a million years ago?

Janey wasn't sure what to do though, she lived for Splatfests; the energy, fireworks, the concerts Off the Hook does and just everything was so good but she was worried about Athena.

She wasn't sure what to do, how do you even ask  _"hey now obvious child soldier with a lot of emotional baggage, wanna join a watered down version of an old horrible war"_.

Okay maybe that was a bit extreme but still.

So Janey just bit the bullet.

"You're an Octoling, huh?" Nailed it.

Athena didn't look at her, just stared straight ahead, clenching her hand against her arm as her knuckles turned white.

"I guess that's why you never said anything about yourself, I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable." Janey gently laid her hand on Athena's shoulder, hoping this was enough to ease her worries.

She didn't say anything for a moment and Janey was worried she screwed up before Athena grabbed her hand and held it. "You're not mad?"

She laughed, "Why would I be mad, I was the one being nosy about you?"

"Because.. of the war…"

Janey scooted closer on the bench they were sitting on near the back of the Square, it was close to evening and the area was mostly empty, "Athena, that was 100 years ago and pretty much all inklings don't care about that stuff. It happened, you guys are here now and we dig it, the end."

Athena seemed skeptical, "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely! And when this Splatfest is over, believe me when I say nothing will change."

And it didn't, Squids won though and maybe Janey hoped a little that Octolings would in the end, but it didn't change what she told Athena. Splatfest over, winner declared and everyone moved on.

So that crisis averted, Janey just had to figure out how to deal with her crush without giving it away or coming off as creepy, she knew she tended to be a little… enthusiastic when it came to this and she really didn't want to scare her off, she liked Athena and losing her because of her dumbassery would suck.

She didn't really plan to tell her, Athena was skittish and got overwhelmed easily when she wasn't focused on work or battling. Janey would've been fine if things stayed like this and it would have if she didn't figure out that Athena had been staying in a, relatively dry, alleyway for the better part of the year.

She had at least had a tent, but this was…

"Athena… I know you have money, why didn't you rent an apartment?"

Her Octoling friend fidgeted with her hands, "I've been doing this for so long and it was working, I didn't see the point in changing it."

"How did you manage when it rained?"

"I made a leverage with old crates, it wasn't comfortable but it kept me dry."

Okay no, her friend was homeless and was basically one good storm away from getting splatted for good. She needed to do something, there was no way she could let this stay as it was and before she knew it the words just flew out of her mouth, "Why not stay with me?"

Athena seemed thrown off by the offer, "You don't have to do that Janey…"

Now that she said it, she wasn't gonna give up, "I want to, you can't keep camping out in some alleyway, Athena. We both know you can't do that forever."

She looked frustrated, almost like she was about to argue back when her face relaxed and she nodded, "Okay. But only until I find a place for myself."

"Of course."

* * *

Athena didn't have many possessions, everything she owned fit into a small backpack plus everything she was wearing.

Janey had an extra room that she had been using as storage for all her gear and weapons and clearing it out for her new guest was just a reminder she needed to tidy up instead of leaving everything just around.

The following days she helped Athena look for affordable places to live, she didn't care where as long as it was cheap and decent but Janey wasn't about to let her friend get scammed.

Though as time dragged on with their Salmon Run shifts, Turf Wars and just general hanging out, the apartment searching almost became nonexistent.

Athena's possessions, however very few, could be found scattered throughout Janey's place, she would occasionally help pay rent and even do chores. Janey had almost forgotten she was suppose to help look for her own place to live, it didn't really hit her that maybe Athena should stay with her until one night while watching some bad action movies, she felt a slight weight hit her shoulder and turned to see Athena had fallen asleep.

Janey brought it up during dinner a few days later.

"Hey Athena, maybe you should just move it with me?"

Much too nervous now that she said it, Janey nervously pushed around her food, refusing to look at her friend, "I mean, you've already been staying here for a couple a months and help me pay rent and like everything else, it would just make the most sense and-"

She wasn't sure how long she rambled for, it wasn't until she felt a hand on her shoulder that she stopped. Looking up, she could see that during her time that she was talking that Athena had gotten out of her seat and moved over to her, "Okay."

Janey felt her heart beat faster, "Just like that?"

Athena nodded and smiled before wrapping her arms around her shoulders.


	8. risk & regret (part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An alternate take on episode 3 from Tales.

Fiona woke up in a daze, Brick's punch laid her out flat on her ass. She staggered to her feet, legs shaking as she stood up, she could see Athena standing in front of her, shield at the ready as she saw Vallory walk out with a giant rocket launcher in hand followed by Sasha and Rhys tied up.

This was bad.

"Now Athena, if you would do me and these poor boys a favor, just give up."

Athena scoffed, "Why the hell would I do that?"

Vallory shrugged as she adjusted the bandit rocket launcher on her shoulder and sneered, "Oh I don't know, maybe a little lady of yours can help convince you."

Fiona wasn't sure what to make out of that comment, but judging from how Athena stilled, she seemed to know.

She let a a shaky no.

"Oh yes," Vallory reached into her coat and pulled out what looked to be a dirty piece of clothing, "she put up quite a fight but as you can imagine, it didn't go so well for little Miss Janey."

"Don't say her name!" Athena gripped Xiphos harder, her hand shaking from anger.

Vallory had the nerve to look surprised at that reaction, "My so much anger, I guess you two were close." She laughed as she tossed Janey's vest onto the snowy ground.

Athena dropped Xiphos and ran to grab it, picking it up gently, the fur lining had splashes of blood smeared onto it and it rubbed off onto her fingers when she touched it.

Fiona looked up at Sasha and Rhys, both as surprised by this news; she didn't really kill Janey did she?

Footsteps off to the distance alerted Fiona, she turned to see Brick and Mordecai making their way towards them, but Athena showed no sign that she acknowledged them, she just clutched Janey's bloodied vest in her hands.

Vallory spoke up once the Vault Hunters stood a few feet away from them. "Your move, let these boys take you away and no one else has to get killed."

Fiona looked at Sasha, who shared the same look of fear she must have been showing, Rhys seem more preoccupied with looking for Vaughn to pay attention.

Athena didnt say anything for a moment before clutching Janey's vest tighter, her shoulder's slumping, "Fine."

Vallory smirked as Brick and Mordecai grabbed the ex-assassin, letting them haul her up to her feet as she still held Janey's vest in one hand and dragged her off.

She turned towards Fiona and mouthed sorry before they walked away.

Sasha and Fiona walked up towards Scooter's garage, nervous about how to explain their situation without really explaining anything about the whole Vallory and Athena being kidnapped part.

"Is he even gonna be in the mood for this, Janey was his friend and well…" Sasha trailed off as she paced in front of the door.

Fiona sighed, she didn't like this but what else could they do. "Let's just try."

As they walked in and ready to brace themselves for whatever emotional turmoil they'll face, they weren't expecting to see a bruised and slightly bloodied Janey Springs holding a ice pack against her swollen cheek.

Both Sasha and Fiona yelled out together, "Holy shit!"

Janey and Scooter, who had been hovering next to her as he was packing up what they assumed was a first aid kit inside of a toolbox, turned to see them.

The sisters ran over, Fiona speaking first, "Janey you're okay, what happened?"

Janey sighed and winced a little, settling the ice pack closer to her busted lip. "Some real pieces of work tried to jump me, they got some good hits but I got away and lucky for me, Scooter was still here so I could hide out." She wiped the dried blood off her chin. "Just lucky they only got my vest when they try to grab me."

Scooter slammed the toolbox aid kit closed, "How you ladies doin', you look like you had some trouble as well?" Fiona figured he was pointing out the large angry bruise from when Brick punched her.

"Oh well, it's a bit complicated…"

"Where's Athena?"

Fiona and Sasha froze, "Uh what?"

Janey sighed, "I know she was with you, she forgot to turn off her echo when we last talked. So where is she?"

Oh.

Fiona wasn't sure how to explain how her girlfriend was basically kidnapped and now they were working for the person who helped in the kidnapping. "Some.. some vault hunters came and grabbed her. Some dudes named Brick and Mordecai."

"Shit!" Janey threw her ice pack on the ground, burying her head into her hands as she mumbled angrily to herself.

Guess these were the people they were hiding from that she mentioned earlier?

"Did she say anything, did she put up a fight, what happened?" Janey stood up quickly, frantically grabbed at Fiona's shoulders as she fired off questions.

"Uhhh.. she was fighting them off, but Vallory showed up and she had your vest and made us all think you were.. dead." Fiona whispered out the last part, Janey let her go and sat back down.

"Why would she do that?", she asked.

"I don't know, but I guess it worked cause once she did that, Athena just stopped." Fiona sighed. "I think she thought she got you killed."

Janey shot up, stumbling as she paced back and forth, "Shit, I need to find her and get her. Fuck."

As they watched Janey run around, grabbing random objects, Scooter cleared his throat. "So what did you come here for?"

"Well we were gonna ask if you could build a rocket for us so we could go to space, for reasons…" Fiona winced, but Scooter just yelled excitedly.

"Hell yeah! Space is like one of my favorite things, I can totally do that except I'm not much of a rocket person. Janey is."

All three of then looked over as Janey seemed to just be loading shells in a shotgun and slinging it over her shoulder, "Sorry what, talking about me?"

Fiona winced, looking over at Sasha who just shrugged. "Ah yeah, Vallory is kinda.. strong arming us and we need a rocket to get to Helios or she is gonna definitely kill us."

Janey zipped up a bag that was bursting with guns, "A rocket?"

"Yeah I mean, if you can do it…"

Scooter picked up on Fiona's hesitation at ran up to her, "Janey, if you want, I can get some inside info on how Athena is doing in Sanctuary while you're working on it." He patted her shoulder, "I'm sure we can get this done and be on your way to get yur girl in no time."

Janey didn't seem too convinced, she grabbed the necklace she was wearing, rubbing at the large fang that hung in the middle. "Hmmm okay sure, just as long if this plan goes up in smoke, you get a good hit on Vallory for me?"

Fiona and Sasha smiled at each other, glad that some things seem to be going in their favor slightly. "We kind of expect she'll double cross us eventually, so yeah."


	9. risk & regret (part 2)

Athena held Janey's vest in her arms, they had a least let her keep it after the Watcher was able to convince them to not kill her.

So while she wasn't so much a prisoner, they still wouldn't let her go, keeping her locked in some makeshift cell stuck with a bunch of lockers and an empty loot chest. If she wasn't still so preoccupied with everything that had happened, Athena would've gone mad from how Tannis kept walking up and down and muttering to herself, sometimes loudly and very annoyingly.

She ran her fingers over the fur-lining, the blood had dried and was flaking a bit when she touched it. They had taken her shield and sword, but at least let her keep Janey's vest when they locked her up, for whatever reason she would appreciate it though Athena rather keep that to herself.

Whatever reason they were keeping her around, some war that the Watcher mentioned, she could care less.

The buttons on the vest were smudged with dirt, they seem to be under the plastic as she tried to rub it off.

Janey was dead. It was her fault.

The past few days from when Brick and Mordecai and taken her to Sanctuary to now being stuck in this cell, Athena had nothing else but to do but dwell on the guilty over getting another person she loved killed.

Even if she wasn't the hand who dealt it, her actions still caused this and she was alone again.

She couldn't go back to Hollow Point, she should though just to make sure none of Janey's things got stolen; but after that and whatever this was, she would be back on her own again. Living as a mercenary, masking her emotions and not thinking about the memories of warm skin and soft kisses during quiet moments.

The only sound Athena could hear was the muttering from Tannis and the muffled whirling Sanctuary made as it hovered in the sky.

Claptrap was determined, which wasn't a lot to go on.

But he was determined to find out the truth!

When Mordecai and Brick brought back Athena to Sanctuary, he was ecstatic; an old friend, here where he was currently located and could possibly talk to him!

He was ecstatic until he saw that they tied her up and pointed guns at her, after like 20 minutes of arguing, Claptrap figured they weren't gonna let him say hi to Athena.

So after a few hours of crying and being yelled at, he was back to ecstatic when they didn't kill Athena, but then still kept her prisoner in the Crimson Raiders HQ which he wasn't allowed in anymore due to a incident with a party popper and a jar of mayonnaise.

From what he was able to figure out, thanks to good ol' fashioned detective work and not Gaige telling him what he wanted to know.

Brick and Mordecai had nabbed Athena somewhere out in the tundra, what was weird was they said she had given herself up. Claptrap was one of Athena's esteemed friends and he has seen her charge headfast into groups of Scavs and other moon baddies during their time together, but never had he seen he just stop fighting. Unheard of!

But apparently, as Gaige told him, they got help from some scary lady who went and killed Athena's girlfriend.

Now that was a bummer, he liked Janey.

So after more crying, Claptrap had something like an itch, which was weird cause he was a robot but he couldn't quite shake the thought that maybe Janeu wasn't dead.

It was weird that he even was thinking this, but this was a lady who ran alongside Athena, she was just as tough.

So he ran with this hunch and decided to find out the truth, he figured it would take forever searching in Hollow Point for any signs of the junker. But he would do anything for his friends, Claptrap patted himself on the back for the loyalty he so generously showed when he ran chassy first into Janey Springs' legs.

"Ow! What the fu-Claptrap? What the bloody hell are you doing here?"

Picking himself back, Claptrap wrapped his arms around her legs, "Janey, you're alive! Athena is gonna be so happy and not sad anymore!"

Janey pushed him off, "What do ya mean, is she okay?"

"She's good, just locked up in the Crimson Raiders' HQ. I don't know why they won't let her go, but I guess it's cause of that weirdo alien thing. From the moon."

They both stood in the middle of a Hollow Point musty road, as the sound of Psychos screaming could be heard in the distance.

"What?!"

The meeting with the Watcher was strange, Lilith was not entirely sure what to make of it. But with what they had told them about the vaults and the incoming threat, things just ramped up out of nowhere.

It did little to improve her mood considering she was so close to buring the last loose end of Handsome Jack's reign. Sure, Athena hadn't been under Jack's payroll or going around and lynching random towns and people, but that didn't erase what she was part of. And she was so close to being 6 ft under alongside Wilhelm and the Sheriff of Lynchwood.

Instead, the ex-assassin was now stuck in the holding cell they use for storage until they could figure out what to do.

All of this was such bullshit.

"Uh Lil?

Lilith sighed. "What Mordy?"

"Remember when we told you that Vallory chick killed Athena's girlfriend?"

"Yeah?"

Mordecai starred nervously at the hallway that lead down to the first floor, where Brick was busy peering down timidly. "Uh well she isn't dead, and she's here and very angry and wants to talk to you."

"What, how did she even get here?" Lilith growled as she walk passed him.

"Claptrap."

Perfect.

Lilith pushed passed Brick, as she made her way down the stairs, she could hear loud yelling from outside the building. She looked over to where Athena was held, she couldn't see her from this spot but she wondered if she could hear this or was she just too broody to pay attention.

She made her way towards the door, the yelling got louder and as she put her hand on the door, it swung open to the sight of two Crimson Raiders holding back a tall blonde woman with multiple bruises and burn marks.

When she saw Lilith, she switched from yelling at the two men and pushed her way towards her, "Are you Lilith, where is Athena?"

"Listen-"

"No, you listen! You fucking kidnapped my girlfriend, tried to kill her and still keeping her prisoner, fuck off!" The woman emphasized her statement by thrusting her finger into Lilith's chest.

"Janey?" Athena voice was soft and urgent as it floated from the back of the room.

"Athena? ATHENA IS THAT YOU?!" She tried to move around her, but was held back by the two Crimson Raiders.

Okay she wasn't gonna let this skinny chick boss her around. "Look, Athena still has to answer for her crimes-"

"For what, she didn't help Jack try and take over Pandora or go around killing all those people?"

"She still help put him in power!"

"And what about you, you can turn invisible and shit, why didn't you do that and kill him years ago?!"

Lilith wasn't sure how to answer to that, everyone in the room stood still when Janey yelled that.

"Look, you're outnumbered here and you don't wanna get me angry-"

Janey moved closer, face to face with Lilith. "Or what, you'll burn me? I had Kraggon's explode into lava in my face, what's more burn marks on my body?"

Lilith could hear Brick behind her whisper 'damn that's hardcore'.

"She's over here."

"Brick!"

"What, she made some valid points." Brick moved towards the alcove, leading Janey over.

Athena who may or may not have been trying to break the door open, parts of the bars were misshapen and bent. She froze when she saw Janey, who rushed over and reached through the bars to grab onto her.

"Are you okay?" She whispered gently as she rubbed her thumb over the bruises on Athena's face.

"I'm fine. But you're..." Athena slid her hand across Janey's face, entangling her fingers in her hair. "...alive."

They stared into each other's eyes, not saying anything until Brick interrupted by grabbing onto the door and ripping it out.

"Brick! We had a key for that."

"Yeah, I know."

They were moved to an empty building or what was left of an empty building, Likith wasn't to keen about having Athena freely moving around Sanctuary but was outnumbered by Brick and Mordecai.

They still wouldn't give back Aspis and Xiphos, which was annoying but as far as Athena was concerned, she could tolerate it for now.

She handed over Janey's vest. "Uh here."

"Was wondering where it got to." Janey put it on, grimacing at the dried blood staining the fur.

The room, which was bare save for the tossed up furniture and pieces of debris that had fallen around when Sanctuary took flight.

They stood in silence, not sure how to approach the chain of events that had lead them to this point.

"Athena-" "Janey-"

"You-you first.."

Janey sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. "Why did you lie? If you had said something then maybe we could've figured something out and maybe avoided parts of this mess."

Athena stared at her hands, tugging at the leather. She recognized that look, she was choosing her words carefully, Janey knew she had trouble delicately explaining things without sounding aggressive. Athena did this a lot before they started dating.

"I thought I could just cut myself off, cold turkey. That once the job with Jack was over and we moved to Hollow Point, I could just move on. But I started… having dreams, and I got scared that I was wrong so I thought taking a few jobs on the side would put my mind on ease."

She shook her head. "It just turned into a habit. I wanted to tell you, but I was afraid you would be disappointed or worse, that maybe if I tried to say anything then I would wake up and Atlas would still be around and I never left. That I just dreamt you up."

Athena starred at the broken pieces of debris.

"When I thought Vallory killed you, everything seemed so pointless. I just couldn't put up the will to keep fighting." She picked at her leather gloves. "At that moment, I didn't want to keep living anymore."

Janey wrapped her arms around her, squeezing her tightly. Athena gripped the back of her vest, burying her face in the crook of her neck, tears now slipping.

"Athena…"

"I know it sounds ridiculous, but I can't stop thinking there's no way someone like me deserves to live a life happily after everything I did." She took a raspy breathe. "Someone like me doesn't deserve you."

Janey hugged her tighter. "You do, you do deserve me. You deserve to live a happy life, darl."

"I want to fix this, I know I messed up. I want to fix this."

Both women held each other as they let the new point of their lives pass, things would be different but they would get through this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally when I wrote this, it was very short and didn't allude to Janey being a live. But then I couldn't for the life of me do that.


	10. Return of Atlas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not the most creative titles but I wrote this on the way back from work, anyway, I had the idea when I saw Atlas was back in the BL3 trailer.
> 
> Can't imagine Athena would be too thrilled.

The first time Athena had heard the familiar jingle of the Atlas manufacturer commercials on the radio, she was helping Janey fix up a custom job caravan a customer had brought in the other day. She had been handing her a socket wrench when the music stopped her cold, it was like she had blacked out and the next thing she knew was the radio had been smashed, with the tool embedded in the body as it sparked and fizzed to death.

Athena felt a gentle pressure run across her back and settle against her shoulder, feeling something physically pull her gaze away from the broken device and to Janey's concerned face.

She didn't need to say anything, Athena doesn't think she could even utter a single word in that moment. All she could do was focus on Janey, on her dark brown eyes, the grease smudges on her face and the gentle warmth she felt as she pressed up against her.

Athena hated crying, it did nothing but leave her feeling drained and empty. But with Janey, the empty feeling felt less like a weakness and more like letting the pain go.

 

* * *

 

Athena had been was picking up some scrap that Janey had ask Ellie for when she spots the posters.

She had been having a relatively nice conversation with as well, it was something she had working on and getting used since actually making friends and having to realize that small talk was a thing people did. Athena would like to think her social skills were becoming less awkward and stabby, Janey said she was making good progress, and she would rather take her word over anyone else's.

That woman could talk her into anything and that was all anyone would be allowed to know, unless you were Tina who just seem to know no matter how hard she tried to hide.

That girl scared her.

When she had finished loading the last of the bit of the cargo, Athena walked back inside Ellie's place to have her sign the deliver slip and get paid when as she passed by the space where the boxes had been stacked up against and saw the bright red and white lettering of an Atlas promotional poster.

It was brand new, had barely any dirt smudges on it.

It read ' _BUY AN ATLAS AND FEEL LIKE A GOD AMONG MEN_ ', Athena hadn't wasted anytime in stalking over to the offending piece of paper and ripped it off the wall, she didn't get a good grip but she didn't care, ripping it into pieces was fine for her. She didn't care if Ellie saw or thought anything of it, all she needed to do was get home and away; somehow Athena was coherent enough to drive home safely.

Janey later found her in their bedroom, sitting on their bed and staring at the wall.

Athena's hand was still clenching the ripped remains of the poster, as she gently pried her fingers apart to free the pieces of paper and saw the part of the Atlas logo, she decided to burn it later but right now Athena needed her. She tucked the scraps into her pocket and knelt down in front of the silent woman, gently holding Athena's hands.

Athena let out a tired sigh. "It never really goes away, does it?" She squeezed Janey's hands, but still kept her gaze on the wall in front of her, her breathing becoming more haggard. Janey pulled one of her hands against her face, it was enough to pull Athena's attention to her and she could feel her thumb brush against her rough burnt skin, the comfort and warmth she seem to be providing helping pull Athena out of whatever dark corner she was lost in her mind.

"No, it doesn't." Janey gripped Athena's hand, taking a deep breath. "But, what you can do is not let it control you, because once you start giving it more power, it gets harder and harder to stop." She wasn't sure if this was helping, Janey was always afraid that Athena's traumas were too deep; that while they would scab over, they would only continuously heal over and reopen no matter how much she tried to help. But she knew that drawing a line only made Athena feel trapped because it wasn't working, but not giving some sense of a guideline would make her feel lost, Janey needed to find that perfect line and gently walk Athena along it, she was just as uncertain as she was and Janey was gonna make sure she knew she wasn't alone.

She pulled Athena's hand to kiss her knuckles. "Whenever it gets too much, know I'm here and I'll help with a smile and some elbow grease." That was able to pull a small laugh from Athena and the hint of smile, Janey felt like that was a victory for today.

Since the garage was already closed up for today, what was decided what was needed was a good dinner of skag steak and rakk ale while watching Echo shows, even that really weird one about the alien doctor or something.

Athena had interesting taste that's for sure.

Janey knew this was only a step forward for a harrowing journey, but she wasn't gonna let Athena walk it alone. She also made sure to ask Fiona to slap Rhys upside the head since she was sure she would just end up shooting the man instead.


	11. Drabble #1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured for short works, I could just do this instead of wasting time with titles. It's hard naming things, y'know. Also this was an idea from someone in a discord server I'm in, so credits to them as well!

"I want to offer you a job working for me."

As soon as those words left his mouth, Rhys knew he made a mistake.

The expression on Athena's face may have not changed from quiet indifference but he could feel the atmosphere of the dingy garage grow colder and tense, why did he think this was a good idea?

Maybe being CEO made him more overly confident that he could convince someone who years ago took down Atlas and had been going out of their way to finish off any old members, maybe it was the mustache?

Somehow, even with all the noise from outside with the bandits and psychos roaming around, the silence was so adamant that even Rhys could hear Zer0's quiet shuffling from behind him.

He was going to die here.

Athena leaned forward against the office desk and sighed. "Rhys, I find you relatively okay, which is why I won't stab you." He could cry, okay so all he would have to live with is this unfortunate memory and awkward moment with Athena, he could live with that especially the living part.

"But," And Athena looked over his shoulder. "I can't say the same for Janey."

With that, the door behind them slammed open, Rhy whirled around while Zer0 just lazily looked behind them, to see Springs with a Jakob's shotgun.

To hell with dignity, Rhys all but ran back towards the Fast Travel station, Zer0 waved goodbye to them before walking off.

"A Jakobs, you really wanted to scare him, huh?" Janey placed the shotgun on the desk before bending over and wrapping her arms around her wife's shoulders.

"Yeah, well. I think we both can agree it was well deserved." She punctuated her statement by kissing Athena's cheek.

A few weeks later, they had gotten a delivery of an Atlas brand latte machine with a note of apology and a later call from Fiona that she slapped Rhys upside the head.


	12. Baroness of Love

Concordia was alright, probably the nicest place Athena had been next to Atlas HQ if you ignored the surrounded devastated area of Promethea if you could.

While the occupants were odd, they weren't as annoying as other inhabitants she had run into on Pandora or any of the other planets she had been to. And while she wouldn't admit to it, she did appreciate that familiarity of Moxxi, the woman was… a lot but at least in between missions, Athena had a place to take a breather.

Though, while she appreciated all these small comforts, there was one bit Concordia that left her feeling lost.

That 'bit' being a person, who was currently behind her in their office while Athena stood next to the grinder, hoping that Springs did not notice she had been standing there for minutes on end as she pretended to go over her gear.

Athena wasn't one for small talk, she down right hated it, but that didn't mean she couldn't at least speak to others even if it was mostly just short harsh words. With Janey though, anything past business talk and she sounded like she never spoken to another person in her entire life, something about the other woman made her just act stupid. It wasn't like she never seen or even considered other women attractive, even members in her old team before she defected, but somehow all Janey Springs had to do was smile and Athena could feel all her composure just go out the window and explode.

And now she was making her do things she never expected to do, like stand around like an idiot trying to think up a way to start a conversation that didn't come off as trying to hard. So far she hadn't been able to come up with anything past a greeting or about past battle performances, which she wasn't sure if Springs would find interesting or boring. As Athena continued to hover in the room, she was saved (or made worse) from any more discomfort when Nisha called her over from the doorway, "Hey, the guys left to do some job in Triton Flats. Aurelia and me are gonna get a drink, join us once you're done with this." She waved her hand lazily in Janey's direction, a devilish smirk painted on her face and Athena could feel her embarrassment increase tenfold.

Before she left, Nisha threw out a "Hey Springs!", Athena turned to see that Janey had just exited her office and now she was totally screwed. "Heya, Nisha!" The junker turned to see Athena standing off to the side, if she at all noticed the panic look had then she didn't give any indication that she did. As she passed by heading towards the garage, Janey slowed down enough that she brushed shoulders with her, her dark brown eyes almost twinkling along her toothy smile, "Hey, Athena."

It took every bit of dignity within Athena to not wince at how hoarse her voice was as she croaked out a shaky 'hello'. She watched as Janey left her line of sight, listening to her footsteps as they stomped down the stairs and off to do whatever she does that wasn't… actually Athena didn't really understand what she did.

As soon as she stopped hearing her footsteps and was sure she was away from her line of sight, Athena banged her head against the side of the grinder. How was it this woman reduced her to a babbling idiot with just a look and barely any words?

Atlas training was suppose to harden her, completely and utterly remove any sort of possibility that Athena would ACT like this towards anyone, but no. She crash lands on the moon and apparently finds the one person in the universe who reduces her to mush.

UNBELIEVABLE.

But, she wasn't exactly upset about it, she found Springs' flirting and attention nice, almost addicting if Athena was being honest. Thinking about this was exhausting, and it distracted her from focusing on the mission, she needed to get this done and then.. maybe...

Taking the moment to steady herself, Athena stalked out of the Emporium and headed towards Moxxi's, maybe a drink would calm her down. She quickly spotted Nisha and Aurelia sitting off the side and judging from the Rakk Ale and Whiskey bottles on the table, already a few drinks down.

As soon as she took a seat, Nisha slid a glass of she-didn't-care-what-it-was-at-this-point and downed in one swig. "So, did you actually talk to her or just stare blankly like you always do?"

Athena didn't bother answering and chose to just glare harshly in her direction, it didn't do anything other than make the lawbringer laugh. "It's amazing how much of a badass you can be, but you immediately turn into a bumbling moron when it comes to Springs. It's almost cute."

"Please, stop talking."

While Nisha and Athena bantered back and forth, refilling drinks in between, all Aurelia seemed to do was sip her vodka martini with a slow ledger, letting them quiet down before she decided to interject.

"Athena darling, if you want, I could give you some handy advice for this particular situation?"

"You… what?"

"Help, darling.

Athena sat rigidly in her seat, studying Aurelia's lazy smile for any hint of deception. After a moment, she deemed she was telling the truth, setting her glass down and giving her full attention to her.

"Okay, go ahead."

"In my youth, I was completely enamored with a young lady, a heiress to some corporation I don't quite remember anymore. For a time, I was absolutely struck by her beauty and her absolute ruthlessness in the boardroom. It was intoxicating, but for some reason I was so unsure of how to approach her."

This was almost too unreal, for the short amount of time Athena had been acquainted with Aurelia, she had been nothing short of… well a stone cold bitch in her own words. But this was completely unexpected, Athena couldn't even begin to imagine the other women to act bashful or nervous in any way and judging from Nisha's shocked expression, this was as much as a surprise to her as well.

"It came to the point where I needed to make my move or simply continue to watch from the sidelines until those feelings faded or someone else did what I couldn't do. I'm not one to be showed up, so I made a plan and well, let's just say I made quite the impression that paid off."

"...What happened?"

"Hmmm? Oh she tried to buy out my company from under me so I did the same to her. Needless to say it soured any romance between us."

Oh.

Athena frowned, "Okay, so how does that help me?"

Aurelia sipped the rest of her vodka martini before setting the empty glass on the table. "My point, my dear, is either make your move before things are too late. You don't want to be left with any sort of regrets so take a chance."

Athena glanced down at her drink, running her finger against the lip of the glass; as much as she hated to admit it, Aurelia was right. Who knows how long Springs would stay interested in her, it was obvious she didn't wait around considering she had front row view of that with Amelia. She had many hangups and regrets already, Atlas's dirty laundry wasn't secret and it was obvious Springs knew enough since she already did ask her about it before the came to Concordia, but did Athena want to expose Springs to what Atlas really did to her, that darkness that never really left her?

Springs wasn't innocent, that much was clear especially the whole "please kill this guy for me" part. She's been nothing but nice to Athena, even when asking to do jobs for her; every time she had something to say, Athena wanted to listen, no matter how ridiculous or rambly she got. She even wanted to just be around her, Springs' presence seem to ease something within Athena, sometimes it scared her how much she wanted to fall into it.

The only thing that was holding her back was her own fears and insecurities, but Athena wanted nothing more than to try.

Yeah, she was gonna go for it.

Taking a deep breath and ignoring Nisha's still shocked expression, apparently this new side to the other woman was still too much to take in. "Thanks Aurelia."

"It was no trouble darling, now, that'll be 50,000 dollars. Advice isn't free."

"WHAT?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you know how much of a nightmare it is to write femslash and deal with pronouns? If you, the reader gets confused, CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW I FEEL?


End file.
